÷ Subtraction It is believed that the signs "+" and "-" originated in commercial practice. The wine merchant marked with lines how many measures of wine he sold from the barrel. Adding new supplies into the barrel, he crossed out as many expendable lines as he restored measures. So, supposedly, signs of addition and subtraction occurred in the 15th century. The Greek letter psi Ψ was used to denote subtraction in the 3rd century BC in Greece. Italian mathematicians used the letter m for this, the initial letter in the word "minus". In the 16th century, the sign "-" was used to denote the action of subtraction, and to distinguish between the minus and the dash, in the 17th century, minus began to be denoted by the sign ÷. This sign is found in the Russian mathematician Leonty Magnitsky at the beginning of the 18th century in his book "Arithmetic". In the book of L. Magnitsky, examples of subtraction looked like this: 6 ÷ 2 15 ÷ 12 Leonty Filippovich Magnitsky ()


Division: For millennia, division has not been signified. He was simply called and written down in words. Indian mathematicians were the first to denote division by the initial letter from the name of this action —D. The Arabs introduced a line to denote division. It was adopted from the Arabs in the 13th century by the Italian mathematician Fibonacci. He also used the term "private" for the first time. The colon sign (:) began to be used for division at the end of the 17th century. Before that, such a sign was also used ÷ In Russia, the names "dividend", "divisor", "private" were first introduced by Leonty Magnitsky at the beginning of the 18th century. Mathematicians of the Middle Ages.


Ordinary fraction The first fractions, with which we are introduced to history, are fractions of the form: ½; 1/3; ¼ - single fractions These fractions appeared 2000 years ago. Archimedes had other fractions, numbers. We call them mixed. In Russian, the word "fraction" appeared in the 8th century, it came from the verb "split" - to break into pieces. In the first textbooks of mathematics, fractions were called “broken numbers”. The modern designation of fractions originates in ancient India. Initially, the fractional bar was not used in the recording of fractions. The fraction trait was only used consistently about 300 years ago. In 1202, the Italian merchant Fibonacci (gg.) Introduced the word "fraction". The names "numerator" and "denominator" were introduced in the 13th century by Maxim Planud, a Greek monk, scientist, mathematician. In Western Europe, the theory of ordinary fractions was given in 1585 by the Flemish engineer Simon Stevin. Simon Stevin (gg.) Archimedes (circa 287 - -212 BC)


% Percentage This word translated from Latin means "over a hundred". Interests were especially common in ancient Rome. The Romans called interest money that the debtor paid for every hundred. For a long time, interest was understood as profit or loss for every hundred rubles. They were used only in trade and money transactions. Then they began to be used both in science and technology. There are two opinions about the percent sign. 1. The% sign comes from the Italian word "cento" (one hundred), which was abbreviated as cto. In calculations, this word was written very quickly and gradually the letter t turned into a slash, a symbol appeared to denote a percentage. 2. The percent sign is due to a typo. In 1685, a book on arithmetic was printed in Paris, where by mistake the typesetter typed% instead of cto. After this mistake, many mathematicians began to use the% sign to represent percent. Gradually, this sign gained universal recognition. Robert Record, English mathematician, physician. (1510 - 1558)


Equality = The equal sign was denoted at different times in different ways: both in words and symbols. The sign "=", which is very understandable for us, was introduced in 1557 by the English mathematician and physician Robert Record. This is how he explained the choice of the sign. "No two objects can be more equal to each other, like two parallel lines" This sign came into general use only in the 18th century, thanks to the German mathematician Wilhelm Leibniz. Drawing for the book on mathematics by Robert Record "The Castle of Knowledge"


Multiplication To denote the action of multiplication, European mathematicians of the 16th century used the letter M, which was the initial in the Latin word for increase, multiplication, - animation. From this word comes the name "cartoon". In the 17th century, some mathematicians began to denote multiplication by an oblique cross, while others used a period for this. In the 16th and 17th centuries, there was no uniformity in the use of symbols. It wasn't until the late 18th century that most mathematicians used the point for multiplication. William Outread - English mathematician - in 1631 introduced the sign of multiplication with a cross. The famous 17th century German mathematician Wilhelm Leibniz used the dot to denote multiplication. In Europe, for a long time, the product was called the sum of multiplication. The name "multiplier" is mentioned in works of the 11th century, and "multiplier" in the 13th century. In Russia, Leonty Magnitsky first gave names to the components of multiplication at the beginning of the 18th century. Wilhelm Leibniz, German mathematician. (1646 - 1716)


Addition +++ Separate signs for some mathematical concepts appeared in antiquity. However, until the 15th century, there were almost no generally accepted arithmetic signs. In the 15th - 16th centuries, the Latin letter "P", the initial letter of the word "plus", was used for the addition sign. For addition, the Latin word "et" was also used, meaning "and". Since the word "et" had to be written very often, they began to shorten it: first they wrote one letter "t" which gradually turned into a "+" sign. The ancient Egyptians designated addition by a sign - a pattern of walking legs. The term "term" first appears in the works of mathematicians of the 13th century, and the concept of "sum" - in the 15th century. Until that time, the sum was called the result of any of the four arithmetic operations. For the first time, the signs "+" and "-" appear in print in the book "A quick and beautiful bill for all merchants." It was written by the Czech mathematician Jan Widman in 1489. Mathematician. 15th century.

Road signs are an integral part of roads and their order. It's hard to imagine life without them. And recently I wondered where they came from, who and how invented them.

But first things first.

First signs

There are many hypotheses about the earliest pointers. It is believed that primitive people made routes through forests and open areas, leaving small stone piles, making notches in trees or breaking branches.

Not the best option. Marks, branches and stones are not always visible.

Next step

Further, people decided to put pillars with sculpted heads of gods, statesmen and philosophers so that they would contrast with natural landscapes. Over time, signs of settlements were added to the signs.

Officially, the first system of road signs originated in ancient Rome. Cylindrical milestones were installed on the roads. They had information about the distance from the Roman Forum, where the golden milepost was located. Therefore, "all roads lead to Rome."

From there, the milepost system spread everywhere. Although we have pointers appeared rather late: only in the time of Peter I.

New impetus

The first rules of the road in the modern sense appeared in Portugal in 1686. In the narrow streets of Lisbon, priority signs were installed to regulate traffic flows.

Large scale road signs began to be installed for fast and quiet cyclists in the 1870s. The markers did not provide distance information, but warned, for example, of steep hills.

With the development of the automotive industry, it was decided to revise the road sign system. In 1895, the Italian Tourist Club completed the development of the first. In 1903, the first signs were installed in Paris.

Standardization failed

And then it began. Who is in that much. Each country had its own road signs. However, car traffic to other countries has become commonplace. There was an urgent need to introduce signs of international significance.

So, in Paris in 1909, the "International Convention on the Movement of Cars" adopted the following road signs: "Rough road", "Winding road", "Crossroads", "Crossing with the railroad".

Since 1926, international road signs have been intensively developed, they have been changed and supplemented. But whatever one may say, the signs in different countries are different. In some Chinese or Japanese, you can't understand anything at all without knowing the language.

Who invented them

Road signs were not invented overnight. They have evolved and modified over the years.

Different types of pointers that are understandable to everyone were developed by more than one person. This work involved car users and government committees to create easily recognizable signs. Any business needs a focus group, and traffic rules are no exception.

Last bit of humor


Today it is very popular to stick different people, animals and more on signs, giving them a cheerful and extraordinary look. I know for sure that there are many of them in Italy.

And depending on the terrain, signs may warn of wildlife that run out onto the road: moose, bears, kiwi, crocodiles, penguins and other animals. Plus there are funny ones, such as “you can't go to the toilet in a big way in the forest”, “reproductive zone, don't bother the kangaroo” or “you can't hunt killer whales” in the desert.

So it goes. Have you noticed unusual signs in other countries?

When people interact for a long time within a certain field of activity, they begin to look for a way to optimize the communication process. The system of mathematical signs and symbols is an artificial language that was developed to reduce the amount of graphically transmitted information and at the same time fully preserve the meaning inherent in the message.

Any language requires learning, and the language of mathematics in this regard is no exception. To understand the meaning of formulas, equations and graphs, you need to know in advance certain information, understand the terms, notation system, etc. In the absence of such knowledge, the text will be perceived as written in an unfamiliar foreign language.

In line with the demands of society, graphic symbols for simpler mathematical operations (for example, notation for addition and subtraction) were developed earlier than for complex concepts like integral or differential. The more complex the concept, the more complex the sign it usually denotes.

Models of the formation of graphic symbols

In the early stages of the development of civilization, people associated the simplest mathematical operations with familiar concepts based on associations. For example, in Ancient Egypt, addition and subtraction were indicated by the drawing of walking legs: directed in the direction of reading the lines, they denoted "plus", and in the opposite direction - "minus".

Figures, perhaps, in all cultures were originally designated by the corresponding number of dashes. Later, conventions began to be used for recording - this saved time, as well as space on material carriers. Letters were often used as symbols: this strategy became widespread in Greek, Latin and many other languages ​​of the world.

The history of the emergence of mathematical symbols and signs knows two most productive ways of forming graphic elements.

Converting Verbal Representation

Initially, any mathematical concept is expressed by some word or phrase and does not have its own graphical representation (in addition to the lexical one). However, performing calculations and writing formulas in words is a lengthy procedure and takes up an unreasonable amount of space on a material medium.

A common way to create mathematical symbols is to transform the lexical representation of a concept into a graphic element. In other words, the word denoting a concept is shortened or transformed in some other way over time.

For example, the main hypothesis for the origin of the plus sign is its abbreviation from the Latin et, the analogue of which in Russian is the union "and". Gradually, in cursive writing, the first letter ceased to be written, and t reduced to the cross.

Another example is the "x" for the unknown, which was originally an abbreviation for the Arabic word for "something." In a similar way, there were signs for the designation of the square root, percent, integral, logarithm, etc. In the table of mathematical symbols and signs, you can find more than a dozen graphic elements that appeared in this way.

Arbitrary character assignment

The second common option for the formation of mathematical signs and symbols is the assignment of a symbol in an arbitrary way. In this case, the word and the graphic designation are not related to each other - the sign is usually approved as a result of the recommendation of one of the members of the scientific community.

For example, the signs of multiplication, division, and equality were proposed by mathematicians William Ouhtred, Johann Rahn and Robert Record. In some cases, several mathematical signs could be introduced into science by one scientist. In particular, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz proposed a number of symbols, including the integral, differential, and derivative.

Simplest operations

Signs such as "plus" and "minus", as well as symbols denoting multiplication and division, are familiar to every student, despite the fact that there are several possible graphic signs for the last two mentioned operations.

It is safe to say that people knew how to add and subtract many millennia before our era, but standardized mathematical signs and symbols, denoting these actions and known to us today, appeared only by the XIV-XV centuries.

However, despite the establishment of a certain agreement in the scientific community, multiplication in our time can be represented by three different signs (diagonal cross, point, asterisk), and division - by two (horizontal bar with dots above and below or oblique line).

Letters

For many centuries, the scientific community has used exclusively Latin for the exchange of information, and many mathematical terms and signs find their origins in this language. In some cases, graphic elements were the result of abbreviated words, less often - their intentional or accidental transformation (for example, due to a slip of the tongue).

Percentage notation ("%") most likely comes from a misspelled abbreviation cto(cento, that is, "hundredth part"). In a similar way, the plus sign occurred, the history of which is described above.

Much more has been formed by deliberately shortening the word, although this is not always obvious. Not everyone recognizes the letter in the square root sign R, that is, the first character in the word Radix ("root"). The integral symbol also represents the first letter of the word Summa, but intuitively it looks like an uppercase f without a horizontal line. By the way, in the first publication, the publishers made just such a mistake by typing f instead of this character.

Greek letters

As graphic designations for various concepts, not only Latin are used, but also in the table of mathematical symbols, you can find a number of examples of such a name.

Pi, which is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, comes from the first letter of the Greek word for circle. There are also a few lesser-known irrational numbers denoted by the letters of the Greek alphabet.

A very common sign in mathematics is "delta", which reflects the amount of change in the value of variables. Another commonly used sign is sigma, which serves as a sum sign.

Moreover, almost all Greek letters are used in one way or another in mathematics. However, these mathematical signs and symbols and their meaning are known only to people who are professionally engaged in science. In everyday life and everyday life, this knowledge is not required for a person.

Signs of logic

Oddly enough, many intuitive symbols were invented quite recently.

In particular, the horizontal arrow replacing the word "therefore" was proposed only in 1922. Quantifiers of existence and universality, that is, signs that read: "exists ..." and "for any ..." were introduced in 1897 and 1935 respectively.

Symbols from the field of set theory were invented in the years 1888-1889. And the crossed-out circle, which today is known to any high school student as the sign of the empty set, appeared in 1939.

Thus, signs for such complex concepts as the integral or the logarithm were invented centuries earlier than some intuitive symbols, which are easily perceived and assimilated even without prior preparation.

Math Symbols in English

Due to the fact that a significant part of the concepts were described in scientific works in Latin, a number of names of mathematical signs and symbols in English and Russian are the same. For example: Plus, Integral, Delta function, Perpendicular, Parallel, Null.

Some concepts in two languages ​​are called differently: for example, division is Division, multiplication is Multiplication. In rare cases, the English name for a mathematical sign gets some spread in Russian: for example, in recent years, a slash is often referred to as a "slash" (English Slash).

table of symbols

The easiest and most convenient way to familiarize yourself with the list of mathematical signs is to look at a special table that contains operation signs, symbols of mathematical logic, set theory, geometry, combinatorics, mathematical analysis, and linear algebra. This table presents the main mathematical signs in English.

Math signs in a text editor

When performing various kinds of work, it is often required to use formulas that use characters that are not on the computer keyboard.

Like graphic elements from almost any field of knowledge, mathematical signs and symbols in the "Word" can be found in the "Insert" tab. In the 2003 or 2007 versions of the program, there is an option "Insert a symbol": when you click on the button on the right side of the panel, the user will see a table that contains all the necessary mathematical signs, Greek lowercase and uppercase letters, various types of brackets and much more.

A more convenient option has been developed in versions of the program released after 2010. When you click on the "Formula" button, you go to the formula constructor, where you can use fractions, enter data at the root, change the case (to designate degrees or ordinal numbers of variables). All signs from the table above can be found here.

Is it worth learning math symbols

The system of mathematical notation is an artificial language that only simplifies the recording process, but cannot bring understanding of the subject to an outside observer. Thus, memorizing signs without studying terms, rules, logical connections between concepts will not lead to mastering this area of ​​knowledge.

The human brain easily assimilates signs, letters and abbreviations - mathematical symbols are memorized by themselves when studying a subject. Understanding the meaning of each specific action creates so strong that the signs denoting terms, and often the formulas associated with them, remain in memory for many years and even decades.

Finally

Since any language, including artificial, is open to changes and additions, the number of mathematical signs and symbols will certainly grow over time. It is possible that some elements will be replaced or corrected, while others will be standardized in the only possible form, which is relevant, for example, for multiplication or division signs.

The ability to use mathematical symbols at the level of a full school course is practically necessary in the modern world. In the context of the rapid development of information technology and science, widespread algorithmicization and automation, the possession of a mathematical apparatus should be taken for granted, and the development of mathematical symbols as an integral part of it.

Since calculations are used in the humanitarian sphere, in economics, and in the natural sciences, and, of course, in the field of technology and high technology, an understanding of mathematical concepts and knowledge of symbols will be useful for any specialist.

Both within the city and outside the city, it is necessary to somehow regulate the movement of transport. The road is not always good and there are no dangerous turns or any other potential hazards. How to inform the driver and pedestrian about them?

You can hang a huge information board. And you can put a not very large, but no less informative conventional sign that will be understandable to everyone who is at least a little familiar with the rules of the road.

Officially, a road sign is a standardized graphic that is placed along the side of the road to communicate certain information to road users. And they are installed in strictly defined places, often next to traffic lights or not far from them.

History and evolution

Of course, road signs in the modern sense of the word appeared not so long ago: 110 years ago at the very beginning of the 20th century - in 1903. But let's not get ahead of ourselves, let's start from the very beginning.

A long time ago, when in Southern Europe they still wore togas ... In general, it was in Ancient Greece and no less ancient Rome. It was in ancient times that they first thought about the introduction of road signs and traffic rules in general.

Today, on any highway every kilometer there are columns indicating which kilometer it is. In ancient times, distances were measured in other units, but this does not change the essence. In Greece, for example, along the roads at certain intervals, special pillars were placed - herms (they got their name from the name of the god Hermes, who, among other things, was considered the patron saint of travelers). After some time, sculptural images of politicians and prominent philosophers began to be placed on these pillars, and then - and inscriptions.

The Romans approached this issue much more thoroughly. A special milepost was installed near one of the main temples of the city, from which all the roads of the empire were counted. On the most important transport routes of the empire, special cylindrical pillars were installed. They were marked with special informational signs informing about the distance from the Roman Forum.

Julius Caesar went even further. By that time, the eternal city was already a real metropolis (albeit antique), an incredible number of people were moving along the streets, among whom were visitors, merchants, and local residents. So that no one crushed anyone, it was necessary to regulate at least some points:

  • One-way streets appeared.
  • The passage of private chariots, carriages and carriages in Rome was prohibited from sunrise until the end of the "working day", which approximately corresponded to two hours before sunset.
  • Nonresidents were obliged to leave their transport outside the city and could only move along the streets on foot or in hired palanquins.

A specially created service monitored the observance of these rules. Its ranks were recruited mainly by freedmen, who previously served as firefighters.


Milestones were installed not only in Greece and Rome. Under Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich, milestones were also erected on the roads of the Russian state. Under Peter the Great, the installation of roadside pillars was enshrined in law. It was also ordered to place inscriptions on them indicating directions and distances to a particular settlement.

With the development of the automotive industry, a new problem arose: how to prevent road accidents. It is clear that in the days of horse carriages, accidents happened, but horses, nevertheless, are living beings and can react without waiting for the driver's actions. But one driver, and even on an unfamiliar road ... As a result, three road signs were installed on the streets of Paris: "steep descent", "dangerous turn", "uneven road".

To determine how to secure road traffic in 1906, European motorists gathered and developed the "International Convention on the Movement of Automobiles".

This document contained the requirements for the car itself and the basic rules of the road. In addition, four road signs were introduced: "uneven road", "winding road", "intersection", "intersection with the railway".

Signs were to be installed 250 meters before the dangerous area. A little later, after the ratification of the convention, road signs appeared in Russia. Moreover, the first Russian motorists did not bother with an attentive attitude to these signs.

Varieties of road signs

The last of the documents, which spelled out all the subtleties associated with road signs, is the Vienna Convention, adopted on November 8, 1968. The Convention was developed during the UNESCO conference from October 7 to November 8, 1968 in Vienna and entered into force on June 6, 1978.

According to this convention, there are eight groups of road signs:


  • Warning signs.
  • Preemptive right of way signs.
  • Prohibitory and restrictive signs.
  • Mandatory signs.
  • Signs for special regulations.
  • Information signs, signs indicating objects and service signs.
  • Direction signs and direction signs.
  • Additional signs.

Signs in different countries

Despite the existence of an international standard, road signs are quite different in different countries of the world. A number of countries even publish special guides for visiting drivers.

In the United States, for example, many signs use inscriptions instead of symbols, which makes them difficult to understand. Japanese road signs, which are partially close to the international standard, often use hieroglyphs.

Some signs even have their own homeland. For example, the pedestrian crossing sign, familiar to everyone, was "composed" in the USSR. Today, in Russia alone, more than 250 road signs are used and the system is constantly developing and improving.

There were also frankly funny moments: for a while the sign "uneven road" disappeared from the list. They returned it to the list only in 1961. What was the reason for his exclusion from the set is not clear. Either the roads suddenly became even, or their condition was so sad that there was no particular point in putting a warning.

  • RF road signs (GOST R 52289-2004, GOST R 52290-2004 and Art.12.16 of the Administrative Code)
  • Traffic regulations of the Russian Federation (GOST 10807-78, GOST R 51582-2000, GOST 23457-86)
  • Free electronic encyclopedia Wikipedia, section "Road sign".
  • Free electronic encyclopedia Wikipedia, section "Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals".
  • Free electronic encyclopedia Wikipedia, section "Comparison of road signs in Europe".

On the Internet, the well-known symbol "dog" (@) is used as a separator between a given user's name and the name of a domain (host) in the syntax of e-mail addresses.

Notoriety

Some Internet figures consider this symbol to be a signature of the common human communication space and one of the most popular signs in the whole world.

One of the evidence of the worldwide recognition of this designation can be called the fact that in 2004 (February) the International Telecommunication Union introduced into the common special code for designation @. It combines the codes of two C and A, which reflects their joint graphic writing.

History of the dog symbol

The Italian researcher Giorgio Stabile was able to find in the archives owned by the Institute of Economic History in the city of Prato (which is near Florence), a document in which this sign is first encountered in writing. Such an important testimony turned out to be a letter from a merchant from Florence, which was subsidized as early as 1536.

It refers to three merchant ships that arrived in Spain. The vessels' cargo included containers in which wine was transported, marked with the @ sign. After analyzing the data on the price of wine, as well as on the capacity of various medieval vessels, and comparing the data with the general system of measures used at that time, the scientist concluded that the @ sign was used as a special measuring unit that replaced the word anfora (translated "amphora"). This is how the universal measure of volume was called since ancient times.

Berthold Ullman's theory

Berthold Ullman is an American scientist who suggested that the @ symbol was developed by medieval monks in order to shorten the common word ad of Latin origin, which was often used as a universal term meaning "in relation", "in", "on".

It should be noted that in French, Portuguese and Spanish, the name of the designation comes from the term "arroba", which in turn denotes the Old Spanish measure of weight (about 15 kg), abbreviated in the letter with the @ symbol.

Modernity

Many people are interested in the name of the "dog" symbol. Note that the official modern name of this symbol sounds like "commercial at" and originates from the accounts in which it was used in the following context: [email protected]$ 2each = $ 14. This can be translated as 7 pieces of $ 2 = $ 14

Since the dog symbol was used in business, it was placed on the keyboards of all typewriters. He even attended "Underwood", which was released back in 1885. It was only after 80 long years that the first computer keyboards inherited the dog symbol.

Internet

Let's turn to the official history of the World Wide Web. She claims that the Internet dog symbol in e-mail addresses originated from an American engineer and computer scientist named Ray Tomlinson, who in 1971 managed to send the first ever e-mail message across the network. In this case, the address had to be composed of two parts - the name of the computer through which the registration was made, and the username. Tomilson chose the "dog" character on the keyboard as a separator between the specified parts, since it was not part of either computer names or usernames.

Versions of the origin of the famous name "dog"

There are several possible versions of the origin of such a funny name in the world. First of all, the badge really looks a lot like a curled up dog.

In addition, the abrupt sound of the word at (the symbol for a dog in English is read this way) resembles a bit of a dog barking. It should also be noted that with a good imagination, you can see in the symbol almost all the letters that are part of the word "dog", except perhaps, excluding "k".

However, the following legend can be called the most romantic. A long time ago, in that good time, when all computers were very large, and screens were purely text-based, there was one popular game in the virtual kingdom, which got a name that reflects its content - "Adventure" (Adventure).

Its meaning was to travel through a maze created by a computer in search of various treasures. There were, of course, battles with underground harmful creatures. The maze on the display was drawn using the symbols "-", "+", "!", And the player, hostile monsters and treasures were designated by various icons and letters.

Moreover, according to the plot, the player was friends with a faithful helper - a dog, who could always be sent for reconnaissance in the catacombs. That one was designated just by the @ sign. Was this the root cause of the now generally accepted name, or, on the contrary, was the icon chosen by the developers of the game, because it was already called that? The legend does not give answers to these questions.

What is the name of the virtual "dog" in other countries?

It is worth noting that in our country the symbol "dog" is also called a ram, an ear, a bun, a frog, a dog, and even a mallard. In Bulgaria, it is "maymunsko a" or "klomba" (monkey A). In the Netherlands - apenstaartje. In Israel, the sign is associated with a whirlpool (strudel).

The Spanish, French and Portuguese call the designation in the same way as the measure of weight (respectively: arroba, arrobase and arrobase). If you ask about the meaning of the dog symbol among the inhabitants of Poland and Germany, they will answer you that it is a monkey, a paper clip, a monkey's ear or a monkey's tail. It is considered a snail in Italy, calling it chiocciola.

The least poetic names were given to the symbol in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, calling it "snout a" (snabel-a) or elephant's tail (tailed a). The most appetizing name can be considered a variant of the Czechs and Slovaks, who consider the sign to be a herring under a fur coat (rollmops). The Greeks also associate with the cuisine, calling the designation "little pasta".

For many it is still a monkey, namely for Slovenia, Romania, Holland, Croatia, Serbia (maјmun; alternative: "crazy A"), Ukraine (alternatives: snail, doggie, dog). The term Lithuania (eta - "eta", borrowing with the addition of a Lithuanian morpheme at the end) and Latvia (et - "et") were borrowed from the English language. The variant of the Hungarians, where this cute sign became a tick, can be disheartening.

Finland (cat's tail), America (cat), Taiwan and China (mouse) play cat and mouse. Residents of Turkey (rose) turned out to be romantics. And in Vietnam this badge is called "crooked A".

Alternative hypotheses

It is believed that the name of the designation "dog" in Russian speech appeared thanks to the famous DCK computers. In them, the "dog" appeared during computer boot. Indeed, the designation resembled a small dog. All DVK users, without saying a word, came up with a name for the symbol.

It is curious that the original spelling of the Latin letter "A" was supposed to decorate it with curls, thus it was very similar to the current spelling of the "doggy" sign. The translation of the word "dog" into the Tatar language sounds like "et".

Where else can you find a "dog"?

There are a number of services that use this symbol (besides email):

HTTP, FTP, Jabber, Active Directory. In IRC, the symbol is placed before the name of the channel operator, for example @oper.

The sign is also widely used in the main programming languages. In Java, it is used to declare annotation. In C #, it is needed to escape characters in a string. The operation of taking an address is appropriately denoted in Pascal. For Perl, this is an array identifier, and in Python, accordingly, a decorator declaration. The field identifier for an instance of a class is a Ruby sign.

As for PHP, here the "doggie" is used in order to suppress the output of an error, or to warn about a task that has already occurred at the time of execution. The symbol became the prefix for indirect addressing in MCS-51 assembler. In XPath, it is shorthand for the attribute axis, which selects a set of attributes for the current element.

Finally, Transact-SQL assumes that the local variable name must begin with @ and the global variable name must begin with @. In DOS, thanks to the symbol, echo is suppressed for the executable command. The designation of an action like echo off mode is usually used before entering mode to prevent a specific command from being printed to the screen (for clarity: @echo off).

So we looked at how many aspects of virtual and real life depend on an ordinary symbol. However, let's not forget that it became the most recognizable thanks to the emails that are sent in thousands every day. We can assume that today you will receive a letter with a "dog", and it will bring only good news.